Want to learn to play guitar?

Turns out, vibe coding might be your new practice partner — and quite possibly, the future of UX prototyping.

For years, prototyping was both the magic and the misery of UX design. I spent a good portion of my career inside Axure, and later Figma, translating ideas into experiences that stakeholders could actually understand.

Axure was brilliant at it — logical, powerful, capable of mimicking dynamic user behavior. You could show a fully interactive experience that felt real. But it came at a cost. The learning curve was steep — you practically had to think in code to make it work. And while Axure was ahead of its time, it never evolved into the age of AI.

Then came Figma, and it changed everything — well, almost. Figma revolutionized product design, collaboration, and visual systems, but prototyping in it? That was an exercise in patience. Endless linking, hotspots, duplicated frames — all to simulate maybe one-twenty-fifth of what Axure could do.

And then, quietly, something new arrived.

Enter vibe coding — the ability to describe the experience you want and watch AI build it. It’s not traditional coding; it’s communication. You express intent — the feel, the motion, the user flow — and the AI interprets it into a working prototype.

Tools like Figma Make are redefining what “rapid prototyping” means. It rarely nails it on the first pass, but it learns fast if you can articulate what you want clearly. That’s the new designer’s superpower: precision in language.

I recently put it to the test. I’ve been learning guitar and wanted to gamify the process of memorizing the fretboard. So, I described an app idea called Fretboard Master — a timed challenge where users race to find the correct note, earning whimsical titles as they level up.

The first version was rough. The fretboard was upside down, some notes didn’t work, and the layout needed adjustment. But with a few iterations and clearer guidance, it started to click — literally. The final version looked great and functioned beautifully.

Checkout the prototype: https://cure-pic-19409491.figma.site

The best part?

I built it — start to finish — in under 30 minutes. THIRTY MINUTES!

That’s when it hit me: vibe coding isn’t just another trend. It’s a shift in how we design. We’re moving from builders to directors of experience — from hands-on prototyping to idea orchestration. It’s faster, smarter, and, most importantly, it leaves more room for creativity.

The implications for UX are enormous. What used to take days can now be expressed and tested in minutes. We can prototype emotions, interactions, and experiences at the speed of imagination.

So, the next time you find yourself linking screens and adjusting hotspots, take a step back.

Skip the mechanics. Describe the vibe.

I’m curious to know, what are your thoughts and experiences with vibe coding as a UX’er?